Tag: Paul Edwards

Philosophy of science and life extension

Paul Edwards concludes his chapter ‘The Semantic Challenge’ in his book God and the Philosophers with the following observation about logical positivism:

It is not uncommon nowadays to hear logical positivism dismissed as a set of crude errors and confusions. This is done with an air condescension by philosophers whose writings are usually models of obscurity. To people of my generation who came to philosophy in the 1940s, when traditional metaphysicians  were a dominating force, logical positivism was a liberating movement. Occasionally the leading figures were guilty of dogmatism, and on some important issues, such as the mind body problem and the question of free will, the logical positivists made no significant contributions, but the main doctrines seem to me substantially sound. The verification principle in particular, when stated with suitable amendments, is a powerful weapon against pretentious humbug.

Do life extensionists need to take an interest in philosophy of science and metaphysics? In his review of James Ladyman and Don Ross’s Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized, Alcor staff member Mike Perry notes that “as immortalists we hope to be in the world for a good long while, thus we are interested in the nature of reality. Reality determines, among other things, what our prospects are for our own longterm survival.”

Alternatively, one could argue that metaphysics is not a theoretically legitimate discipline and that the verifiable claims of physics exhaust what we can say about “reality.” Perhaps the most useful benefit of familiarizing oneself with philosophy of science and analytic philosophy is that it enables one to get a better appreciation of the difference between meaningful experimental science and sweeping generalizations deduced from shaky metaphysics.

Further reading: Five important empiricist philosophy books

Paul Edwards on the fear of death

In his book God and the Philosophers, the Austrian American atheist philosopher Paul Edwards writes:

When we die we do not return to the “bosom of Nature” or the bosom of anything. After death we will have no experiences at all for ever and ever; and this is what is so terrible about death. The fear of death is no doubt instinctive, but it is also entirely rational. The usual consolation that we also did not exist for an infinite period before birth is not really to the point. The non-existence before birth was followed by life, but our present life will not be followed by another life after we die.

Whether the fear of death is rational or not, there is also a more common sense perspective available on this issue. Fear of death seems to be hardwired in human nature, only the intensity of  this fear differs among humans. Instead of trying to overcome this fear of death with logical arguments, it would be more productive to seek meaningful rejuvenation and human enhancement therapies that would substantially reduce the probability of death by tackling aging and the fragility of human life.

It is surprising that the work of Paul Edwards has not received more attention by life extension advocates. His book Heidegger and Death and his collection of articles about Immortality indicate a serious interest in the topic of personal survival.